The Praying Mantises in My Flower Garden

October 30, 2017

The Praying Mantises in My Flower Garden

We’ve been pretty lucky here in the Northeast - we got some much needed rain here yesterday, and these last few weeks have been mild enough to continue our long list of outdoor chores.

Last week, Ryan, Wilmer and Phurba were busy weeding and cleaning my flower cutting garden. Most of the brightly colored blooms are gone, but hidden within the green foliage we’ve seen a handful of praying mantises and twice as many praying mantis egg sacs. The praying mantis is a very helpful friend to gardeners and farmers thanks to its mammoth appetite for plant-destroying pests. It is always nice to find them on various branches and twigs. Fortunately, they stayed still long enough for us to capture a series of photos.

Enjoy.

: I have six of these tower trellises in my flower garden, which hold my climbing rose plants.

: While examining the roses and cleaning the surrounding bushes and shrubs, my gardeners made several wonderful discoveries.

: Look closely, and you will see one of many praying mantis egg cases. Have you seen any in your garden?

: We found about a half dozen egg cases around the garden. Each fall, female praying mantises deposit eggs in these frothy brown cases that they attach to twigs.

: The cases harden, protecting the eggs from birds and weather. Any found on twigs and branches should be set aside in protected parts of the garden in a sheltered and warm location. The case should hatch in spring after the last frost and 10 to 15 days of warm weather.

: Each egg case contains approximately 200 baby mantids.

: The nymphs burst out of the case in a small army of hungry youngsters and immediately begin looking for food.

: Not far from one of the egg sacs, we also saw this praying mantis adult. Mantises, also known as mantids, are predators, and are always ready to eat any bugs they see.

: Mantids are warm-region insects. Although 1,800 species exist worldwide, only 11 are found in North America.

: Praying mantises are found in fields, pastures, ditches, and gardens.

: The Chinese mantis, Tenodera aridifolia sinensis, and the common European mantis, Mantis religiosa, were both introduced to the Northeast for insect control. All are known by the common name praying mantis.

: Mantids are big, slender insects. They are two to four inches long when fully grown. Ranging from green to brown in color, they blend in well among grasses and shrubs.

: Here, you can see this mantis reaching out with its long front legs and slowly moving to another area of the plant.

: Here’s another praying mantis on the fence of my cutting garden. Mantises have enormous appetites and eat various aphids, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects when young. Later they will eat beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and other pesky larger insects.

: Praying mantises hunt during the day and night. And if you notice, these mantises are always looking around – it is the only insect that can rotate its head 180-degrees. They also have very good eyesight and may see possible prey from 60-feet away.

: Here is the mantis moving along the fence, looking for prey.

: When lying in ambush for prey, all mantises strike the same “prayerful” posture of folded front legs held tight to the body. They use their back and middle legs to grasp a twig or stem. When an insect comes into reach, the mantis strikes out, and holds the prey with its spiny, or toothed, front legs. It is a very fast process.